Metropolis (Opus Books)

Metropolis (Opus Books) Review

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Metropolis (Opus Books) Feature

"Metropolis" explores the idea of a class of supercities in the past and present, and in the western and developing worlds. It analyses their characteristic problems of congestion, poverty, inequality and squalor, and contrasts these with their inherent glamour and attraction. Past civilizations have always expressed themselves in great cities, immense in their size, wealth and contribution to human progress. Ancient cities such as Babylon, Rome and Constantinople are prime examples. Today there are hundreds of giant cities representing the greatest achievements of different cultures, but as communications improve they have been drawn into a world economic system. Conequently, the supercities of today are poised between their uniqueness and their shared transactions. This book confines itself to discussing a handful of cities which the author sees as representing peaks of cultural achievement, and which were centres of creativity transmitting many of the values of civilization to succeeding generations.

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Global Pop, Local Language

Global Pop, Local Language Review

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Global Pop, Local Language Feature

Why would a punk band popular only in Indonesia cut songs in no other language than English? If you're rapping in Tanzania and Malawi, where hip hop has a growing audience, what do you rhyme in? Swahili? Chichewa? English? Some combination of these?

Global Pop, Local Language examines how performers and audiences from a wide range of cultures deal with the issue of language choice and dialect in popular music.

Related issues confront performers of Latin music in the U.S., drum and bass MCs in Toronto, and rappers, rockers, and traditional folk singers from England and Ireland to France, Germany, Belarus, Nepal, China, New Zealand, Hawaii, and beyond.

For pop musicians, this issue brings up a number of complex questions. Which languages or dialects will best express my ideas? Which will get me a record contract or a bigger audience? What does it mean to sing or listen to music in a colonial language? A foreign language? A regional dialect? A "native" language?

Examining popular music from a range of world cultures, the authors explore these questions and use them to address a number of broader issues, including the globalization of the music industry, the problem of authenticity in popular culture, the politics of identity, multiculturalism, and the emergence of English as a dominant world language. The chapters are written in a highly accessible style by scholars from a variety of fields, including ethnomusicology, popular music studies, anthropology, culture studies, literary studies, folklore, and linguistics.

Harris M. Berger is associate professor of music at Texas A&M University. He is the author of Metal, Rock and Jazz: Perception and the Phenomenology of Musical Experience (1999).

Michael Thomas Carroll is professor of English at New Mexico Highlands University. He is the author of Popular Modernity in America: Experience, Technology, Mythohistory (2000) and co-editor, with Eddie Tafoya, of Phenomenological Approaches to Popular Culture (2000).

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Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide

Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide Review

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Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide Feature

Insider twentysomething Christian journalist Brett McCracken has grown up in the evangelical Christian subculture and observed the recent shift away from the "stained glass and steeples" old guard of traditional Christianity to a more unorthodox, stylized 21st-century church. This change raises a big issue for the church in our postmodern world: the question of cool. The question is whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This probing book is about an emerging category of Christians McCracken calls "Christian hipsters"--the unlikely fusion of the American obsessions with worldly "cool" and otherworldly religion--an analysis of what they're about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the church's relevancy and hipness in today's youth-oriented culture.

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Susie Dent's Words of the Year

Susie Dent's Words of the Year Review

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Susie Dent's Words of the Year Feature

What's the difference between a retrosexual and a metrosexual? Have you heard the scientific evidence for Momnesia (a mother's forgetfulness after giving birth)? Which famous author coined the term embuggerance earlier this year? Are you nomophobic? Following the dramatic success of The Language Report, Susie Dent returns with Words of the Year - a fascinating A-Z collection of new and newly resurrected words that have been selected for their topicality and resonance in 2008. Highlighting why certain words have come into use through current preoccupations or events, Dent charts the very latest linguistic changes and the interesting stories behind them. Contains feature entries for words that are linked by context to a newly prominent word, for example, linked to sub-prime in a financial context are bullish, bear, and bankrupt. Dent bases her discoveries on the most authoritative, thorough, and up to date evidence available: the unparalleled resources of the Oxford English Dictionary reading programme and the Oxford English Corpus, the world's largest language databank.A truly witty and insightful snapshot of current language usage, Words of the Year highlights the words of our time and delves into captivating etymologies along the way. An essential read for all language enthusiasts.

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Wörterbuch und Lexikon der Hydrogeologie: Deutsch Englisch (German and English Edition)

Wörterbuch und Lexikon der Hydrogeologie: Deutsch Englisch (German and English Edition) Review

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Wörterbuch und Lexikon der Hydrogeologie: Deutsch Englisch (German and English Edition) Feature

Das Wörterbuch enthält die wichtigsten Begriffe der Hydrogeologie und ihrer Grundlagen (Strömungslehre, Chemie, Physik, Mathematik usw.); es richtet sich an Studierende der Geologie, des Bauingenieurwesens, der Hydrologie, des Wasserbaus und verwandter Fachdisziplinen sowie an alle auf diesen Gebieten tätigen Praktiker. Die Definitionen werden durch Abbildungen und Graphiken veranschaulicht, zahlreiche Querverweise erleichtern - auch dem weniger geschulten Leser - die Arbeit mit dem Nachschlagewerk. Durch die Aufnahme der entsprechenden englischen Fachbegriffe ist das Lexikon zugleich ein deutsch-englisches sowie englisch-deutsches Wörterbuch.

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ABC-Clio: Webster's Timeline History, 1967

ABC-Clio: Webster's Timeline History, 1967 Review

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ABC-Clio: Webster's Timeline History, 1967 Feature

Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "ABC-Clio," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have ABC-Clio in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with ABC-Clio when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name ABC-Clio, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain.

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Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture [4 volumes]

Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture [4 volumes] Review

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Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture [4 volumes] Feature

From the Apollo Theater to the Harlem Renaissance, from barber shop and beauty shop culture to African American holidays, family reunions, and festivals, and from the days of black baseball to the era of a black president, the culture of African Americans is truly unique and diverse. This diversity is the result of intricate customs forged in tightly woven communities—not only in the United States, but in many cases also stemming from the traditions of another continent.

Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture presents information in a traditional A-Z organization, capturing the essence of the customs of African Americans and presenting this rich cultural heritage through the lens of popular culture. Each entry includes historical and current information to provide a meaningful background for the topic and the perspective to appreciate its significance in a modern context. This encyclopedia is a valuable research tool that provides easy access to a wealth of information on the African American experience.

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London: A Historical Companion

London: A Historical Companion Review

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London: A Historical Companion Feature

This voracious city has inspired an unquenchable interest in its 2000-year history. Kenneth Panton presents the characters, events, buildings, and institutions that have shaped London over the millennia, from the Roman settlement to the cosmopolitan center of culture and commerce it is today. In an accessible, comprehensive, illustrated dictionary format, this book can be used by armchair travellers and tourists alike.

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Islam in European Thought

Islam in European Thought Review

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Islam in European Thought Feature

This collection of essays focuses on the relation between European and Islamic thought and culture from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century. Albert Hourani explores the development of ideas about Islam in European thought and discusses the individual writers who played an important part in informing and communicating an image of Islamic history and civilisation. He also examines some of the reactions of the Islamic world to the powerful new ideas of European civilization including the first Arabic encyclopedia and translation of Homer.

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Speech ... on the occasion to mark the publication and deposit of New Grove's dictionary of music and musicians at the Kwai Chung Public Library on Friday, 20th March 1981, at 4 p.m

Speech ... on the occasion to mark the publication and deposit of New Grove's dictionary of music and musicians at the Kwai Chung Public Library on Friday, 20th March 1981, at 4 p.m Review

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Speech ... on the occasion to mark the publication and deposit of New Grove's dictionary of music and musicians at the Kwai Chung Public Library on Friday, 20th March 1981, at 4 p.m Feature

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